A total of 1,049 bio-digester toilets have been provided for households within the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area (GKMA) under the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources’ project, to increase access to improved sanitation and quality water supply for low income families in the country.
This came to light at a two-day training organised by the Ministry for some selected journalists and information officers drawn from eight Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), to equip them with skills in sanitation advocacy to influence social behaviour and attitude toward enhancing improved environmental sanitation.
The World Bank-funded project, which started in 2015, is aimed at increasing access to improved sanitation and improved water supply in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) and GKMA with emphasis on low income communities, and to strengthen management of environmental sanitation in the GAMA and the GKMA.
Under the project, about 30,000 household toilet facilities would be provided for people with low income in the GKMA, while about 5,000 households would also get connected to water supply support.
In a presentation on the provision of the bio-digester toilets in GKMA, Mr Kwadwo Antwi Gyasi, Sanitation Engineer with the Ministry, indicated that 23 were constructed in November 2021 and 237 in December 2021.
For 2022, he said, 391 were put up in January, 295 in February and 205 in March.
He explained that, unlike the septic tanks, the bio-digester produces micro organisms that fed on the fecal matter, while the water goes into a soak pit.
The system, he mentioned, could be used by 10 people but it could get full if more people used it, adding that it was suitable in communities with a good drainage system.
Participants were also taken through city marketing and sanitation, key ingredients for city marketing among others.
Dr Benard Abeiku Arthur, Chief Executive Officer of Niewtree Ghana Limited, said one could not market a city that was full of filth, stressing that “poor sanitary situation, lack of access to water and toilet facility faced by the country, therefore, necessitated the introduction of the project.”
He said though the government’s responsibility was to provide a befitting living condition for its citizenry, issues related to sanitation could not be shouldered all alone by the government.
Dr Arthur urged the media to help educate the public to embrace the project to improve access to good sanitation and water supply, management of environmental sanitation and the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal 6 of the United Nations, which relates to provision of good sanitation to all by 2030.
The programme afforded the participants opportunity to visit the Adiembra community where the toilet system had been provided.
The beneficiaries were full of praise for the government to ensure decent toilet facility for them.
FROM KINGSLEY E. HOPE, KUMASI
